HISTORY, ROMANCE AND...CATS!
Grace Elliot leads a double life as a vet by day and author of intelligent historical fiction by night. Grace is an avid reader and believes that smart people need to read romance - as an antidote to the modern world!
Grace is also obsessed by all things feline.

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Sunday, 13 March 2016

Cat-egorizing Cats 19th Century Style

How do you
organize cats?

Last week
in How
the Victorians went Wild for Cat Shows we looked at the popular 19th
century pastime of visiting dog or cat shows. However, the organizers of cat
shows had a problem that dog show organizers did not have, which was how
to group the entries. With dogs it was relatively easy because they came in so
many varied sizes and shapes or breeds. Cats – not so much.

A tortoiseshell and white cat by Louis Wain

Cat fancier
Harrison Weir, arranged the very first cat show, which took place at Crystal
Palace, July 16, 1871. His stated aim as organizer in “a labor of love to the
feline race,” was to draw attention and therefore favor to: “The different breeds,
colors, markings.”

However,
Weir had a problem because the existing description of cat breeds tended to
dwell on distinctions that highlighted their weaknesses. One obvious solution
was to arrange the cat classes by color. Gordon Stables, a man who was active
in both the dog and cat show worlds, suggested categorizing cats into 13
groups.

A tabby cat by Henriette Ronner Knip

These colors
were:

Tortoiseshell,
tortoiseshell-and-white,

Brow, blue,
and silver tabby

Red,

Red,
red-and-white, tabby

Spotted tabby

Black-and-white,
black, white,

Unusual color
and any other variety.

Stables asserted
that color was actually key to the cats’ character, and that certain colors
were more likely to have certain character traits. In effect he was trying to
justify the color-grouped categories as being more significant than they really
were.

He argued: “Properly
speaking color is often the key to [the cats] characters…temper…and qualities
as a hunter…and its power of endurance.”

A black and white kitten by Henriette Ronner Knip

This is an
interesting observation, because coat color does carry some associations in the
modern age. For example, tortoiseshell cats are often described as “naughty
torties” within vet clinics, because they have
reputation for misbehaving.

According
to Stables:

Tortoiseshells
were “Good mothers and game as bull terriers”

Black cats
were “Noble and gentlemanly”

White cats
were “Far from brave…fond of society…gentle, and often delicate”

And
black-and-whites “Sometimes…did not trouble himself too much about his duties
as a house-cat.”

Stables
categories didn’t last long and soon went out of fashion. In the 1880s and 1890s
Weir replaced them with not dissimilar groupings but broke them down into yet
more colors, also long-haired or short-haired, age, and gender. However, he
added one final category that was a bit of a showstopper. This was “Cats belonging
to Working Men.”

A blue Persian - in black and white

The latter
category was put in place out of the notion that animal social standing
mirrored that of humans, and it wouldn’t do to have working men getting ideas
above their station. Incredibly, everyone seemed to go along with it, and in
1889, out of 511 entries, 102 were in the category Cats of Working Men.

As the
years passed, a greater study was made of the science of cat-breeding and
specialist breed cat clubs sprang, such as the Siamese or the Abyssinian cat
clubs, the Silver and Smoke Persian cat club or the Tortoiseshell society.
However, rather than breeding to improve the cats, the main criteria for
selecting animals to breed seemed to be rarity, with a cat with unusual colored
eyes or a particularly striking coat commanding the most money.

But that
was reckoning without the character of cats, which were perfectly capable of
escaping and finding their own mate, much to the consternation of their own.

What are
your experiences of different coat colors? Have you noticed distinctive
personalities based on color or is it a load of bunkum?

2 comments:

I have had as many as 14 cats at a time -- ( fortunately had a large house at that time).We had Siamese, Angoras, Maine Coon cats and , of course, cats of many colors. Only had two white cats and they were very different in temperament and attitude as they were from the black cats. How big and how furry a cat was seemed to influence activity more than color. We had a striped cat who oversaw every bit of repair work. A couple of cats of different colors who would greet us at the door.Siamese cats seemed to talk a great deal and the Maine Coon and the Angora were equally as laid back . One black cat hated to be confined in a box-- he was a Ripper and Roarer in any container. Another black cat slept the whole time in a carrier and would even go in one for a nap.

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